Council gets regional projects early 'Christmas present'

The Elliston Council has described the Federal Government's backflip on some Regional Development Australia grants as a "nice Christmas present" for the local community.

The council will receive $800,000 for its coastal trail project, once it has signed the contract with the Government.

It is one of 57 previously uncontracted projects the Coalition says it will now honour from rounds two, three and four of the former Regional Development Australia Fund.

Elliston Council CEO Rob Foster says there had been some concern about whether the project could go ahead as planned, without the Government funding.

"The project would have had to have be broken into these ad hoc phases and they would have been spread out over a number of years, which wouldn't have been anywhere near ideal given the level of support for the project initially," he said.

He says once the contract is signed, work should start in the new year.

"We have already started a process of engaging someone to prepare some of the finer detail plans of the first elements of the project, so a lot of people won't see that work but it will only be a matter of months before there's actually physical signs of work occurring," he said.

The Liberal Member for Grey, Rowan Ramsey, campaigned for Elliston to get the money.

"A lot of round four projects around have been contracted, which we said 'we'll honour that' but these are outstanding," he said.

"I and along with I guess a lot of other members have been speaking to the Minister and I said, 'I think this is a bit untidy, maybe we should be trying to step up to the plate and deliver on those' and that's what the Government and the Minister has decided to do in the end."

However, he says there is no chance applications submitted to round five of the fund will receive money, as they were not assessed by the department before the election.

"The advice is that we [the Coalition] are going to have a regional development fund," he said.

"[It's] not established yet but it will be in the first 12 months of Government and then all projects and all of these bodies will be able to reapply through the system to see if they qualify for those funds."